Scott Lively, who has taken credit for inspiring Russia's controversial 'gay
propaganda' law, says Christian rockstar Vicky Beeching is misguided to
claim she is a lesbian

A US pastor has told a Christian rock star who came out as gay on Thursday that she has “given into a lie” by believing that there is any such thing as a ‘gay person’.

Vicky Beeching, a British musician and theologian whose songs are syndicated in mega-churches across the American Bible Belt, said she had vowed to come out after suffering an auto-immune disease from the stress of keeping her sexuality secret.

But Scott Lively, who has called for ‘advocating homosexuality’ to be criminalised in the United States, said she had to accept the power of God to help her abandon her gay “inclinations”.

In a heated debate on Channel 4 News, he said: “I have a lot of sympathy towards Vicky.

“My sister was a lesbian. In fact, I was the person that she came out to when she was a teenager, and I was the person that she turned to later when lesbianism had almost destroyed her. She became a Christian and overcame lesbianism.

“So I have a lot of sympathy for people who struggle with the challenge that Vicky is facing. I am very sorry to hear that she has given in to the lie that she is a homosexual, instead of continuing to try and overcome the challenge that is in her life.”

The controversial pastor said there was “no such thing” as an intrinsically gay person, saying homosexuality was merely “an identity you adopt”.

Lively, whose Abiding Truth Ministries charity has been classified as a ‘hate group’ by US activists, has claimed credit for Russia’s controversial ‘gay propaganda’ law but rejected as “a lie” accusations that he had helped the Ugandan government draft an anti-gay bill which included the death penalty.

Nevertheless, he has been a loud advocate of the ‘gay therapy’ treatments which Beeching said had “scarred” and “damaged” her.

In her original interview, Beeching described being terrified by an ‘exorcism’ at a Christian summer camp in the English countryside which involved worshippers surrounding her and touching her while “wailing and screaming” in tongues.

His comments on Channel 4 prompted a tense exchange in which she accused his teachings of “damaging so many people” who had been created gay by God.

The pastor in turn claimed she had “adopted the thinking of the world, including the idea that being criticised damages you.” Beeching interrupted: “Like science?”